Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat - Chapter 2

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat ◈

Chapter 2: Genius of Grinding # 2

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Clink.

A plate of sliced meat was placed in front of me.

“Thanks for the meal!”

But when I came to my senses, the plate was completely empty.

Someone had definitely stolen my food.

Fuck!

The problem was that I had eaten it too mindlessly.

It was meat for once, and I hadn't even savored the taste.

'Would she get angry if I asked for another plate?'

I'm a man too.

I think it would hurt if a great beauty like Miss Ezakiel came to dislike me.

So I cautiously looked her way, but Miss Ezakiel kindly asked instead,

“So, do you remember anything now?”

“Yes. Probably.”

“Then let me ask you something. Yore, you were imprisoned because you used a trick to gain unfair profits at a Dantes family gambling den, right?”

“Yes.”

“But you insisted you hadn't used any tricks.”

“That's right. I'm innocent.”

“Of course you are. You weren't caught. A lie that isn't caught is the same as the truth. And a trick that isn't caught is as pure as a virgin's skin. Right?”

Miss Ezakiel suddenly leaned her face toward mine.

Her lukewarm breath brushed against my nose, and I felt a little embarrassed.

I hadn't washed for a month, so I probably smelled awful.

It was humiliating to be in such a cramped space with her.

Yet she stared into my eyes from right in front of me and said,

“You bribed one of the dealers working at the gambling den, didn't you? You knew they used magnets to manipulate the dice, so you knew what number would come up.”

“Bribed someone?”

“But you never revealed who it was, even when you were about to die. A loyal con artist. Those are rare these days.”

“You've got the wrong idea. I only hit the numbers because I got lucky.”

“Fine. Then let's go back to the gallows. You stopped two hangings. That isn't just luck. I think you might be one of the Blessed.”

“You mentioned that earlier. Blessed.”

“Have you heard the legends? A country girl who had never held a sword becoming a saint on the battlefield, or a rural boy playing an instrument as if he'd sold his soul to a demon?”

“Of course. I'm very familiar with them.”

Actually, I had never heard of them.

I was just pretending.

I wanted to please Miss Ezakiel.

Today was the first time I learned that pleasing a beautiful woman could feel so exciting.

“People with extraordinary talents like that are called Blessed. Finding them is my job.”

“Are you saying I could be one?”

“Yore, you have the potential. Body, mind, senses, magic. If even one of them stands out, a person can reach heights ordinary humans can't. In your case, it's luck.”

My luck was special?

That made me snort without meaning to.

If I were lucky, I wouldn't have been locked up and dragged to the gallows.

But then again...

Could there be another guy like me, living two lives?

There had to be something special about me.

“Yore, you hold far greater potential than you think.”

Great potential.

It was the first time anyone had ever said something like that to me.

It felt strange.

For some reason, the first praise I'd ever received set my heart fluttering.

Then suddenly, my vision started spinning.

“You put... something... in the food...”

Thud.

# # #

“So that guy is the new Thief?”

“Fourteen convictions at twenty? What a complete bastard. I don't trust him.”

“Me neither. I don't want another knife in my back.”

I heard people talking.

When I came to, I was lying on something like a bed.

“Ugh, what is this? Where am I?”

What the hell?

My body felt incredibly heavy.

It reminded me of the first time I got completely drunk and suffered through a hangover.

Still, I barely managed to sit up and finally saw my surroundings.

The floor, ceiling, and walls were all built solidly from square stones.

Crackle, crackle.

The fireplace and candles lighting the room felt strangely familiar.

Was this a prison?

Had my meeting with Miss Ezakiel all been a dream?

“Ah, looks like he's finally awake.”

“Hmph! What a shame. He could've stayed unconscious forever.”

“Seriously.”

Then people approached me.

I thought they were guards, but apparently not.

Prison guards in every city tended to wear similar armor.

These people wore different clothes and appeared to be of different genders and ages.

One woman, one man, and one armored person of unknown gender.

“Where am I?”

I asked.

Then the person covered head to toe in armor clanked over to me.

“Where are you? Damn, you really don't know anything. Does that mean I have to explain everything from the beginning? For fuck's sake, you really don't know where you are?”

“I don't.”

I wasn't lying. I really didn't know.

“Hammer, you handle it. I'm leaving.”

“Me too.”

The others left.

You might not notice when someone enters, but you always notice when they leave.

With two people gone, the room suddenly became quiet.

“Yore, that's your name, right? I'm Hammer.”

The person in armor introduced themself as Hammer.

What kind of person were they?

Their voice sounded mechanical, as if it echoed through metal. I couldn't even guess their age or gender.

“According to the documents, you're from Rilke Orphanage in Maril Land. Didn't you see the Wall in that backwater?”

“The Wall?”

“Yeah. The wall in the north that rises as high as a mountain. The one they're still building.”

I knew what that was.

Thompson, an older boy who got kicked out of the orphanage when he came of age, went to work at the construction site for some wall. He broke his back, suffered for months, and died before half a year had passed.

The director had planned to send me there too.

I ran away because I thought I would end up like Thompson, wearing diapers and shitting myself.

“What about the Wall?”

“This is it.”

“What?”

“It'll be faster to show you than explain. Follow me!”

Hammer pulled me out of bed.

After following them and climbing stairs for a long time while bracing myself against the wall, the world suddenly opened before me.

A vast sky, mountains in the distance, and houses as small as ants.

“Wow.”

It was my first time seeing a view from this high up.

If I had gone up somewhere like the 63 Building in my previous life, would it have felt this high?

I didn't know. I had never been there.

I wanted to go, but I wouldn't get the chance anymore.

Still, that was fine.

Standing atop this Wall made me stop caring about somewhere like the 63 Building.

“That dark world over there is Night World, territory that once belonged to the Empire. Now people just call it the Land of Night.”

The Land of Night? Former imperial territory?

So many unfamiliar words came at me all at once.

Perhaps reading my expression, Hammer added an explanation.

“You can tell just by looking. Only that side is dark.”

“Ah, that's why it's called the Land of Night! It's so fucking dark I can barely see anything!”

“Right. Long ago, that dark area suddenly appeared on the land. Crops stopped growing well, and monsters began crawling everywhere.”

“Monsters? The kind that eat and kill people?”

“Exactly! And this Wall is the last stronghold that keeps the Land of Night and its monsters from invading the Empire.”

“Oh, I like anvils too. You hammer them all day, right? Solid metal goes for good money.”

“...That's an anvil. I said stronghold. Do you really know nothing? Every imperial citizen knows this.”

“I'm an imperial citizen?”

“Damn it, do I have to start from there? Argh, if only I hadn't lost rock-paper-scissors. I should've picked paper. Haa...”

Hammer tapped their helmet with an iron gauntlet.

They say stress makes your hair fall out.

Poor thing.

I decided to comfort Hammer.

“I was kidding. Did you really think I wouldn't know I'm an imperial citizen?”

“...You lied the first time we met? Well, look at you. The Conscription Officer really found a rotten one.”

Conscription Officer! A light bulb went off in my head.

“If it's the Conscription Officer, that means Miss Ezakiel. Did Miss Ezakiel send me here?”

“You met Brigadier General Ezakiel? That's unexpected. The brigadier general doesn't usually recruit people personally. Still, this makes things easier. You were scouted as a Wall exploration member.”

“Like a soldier?”

“Strictly speaking, not a soldier. The proper term is Night Diver.”

Night Diver.

A spark went off in my head at those words.

Wasn't that the name of the game I played?

Even though twenty years had passed since I reincarnated, there was no way I wouldn't recognize that name.

How could I forget the game that had put my life back on track?

It still appeared in my dreams sometimes.

In my dreams, I would grind, order Purinkle chicken, and pull cola from the fridge!

Man, those were good times.

I couldn't help imagining what might have happened if I hadn't died from something like heart disease back then.

Would I have made a lot of money, bought a car, and gotten a girlfriend?

“Are you spacing out again?”

Hammer crossed their arms.

They were more perceptive than they looked.

“But if I listen to someone talk for more than five minutes, I get sleepy and start thinking about other things. I can't help it.”

“Hey, that's not something to brag about! Then tell me what I just said. I need to make sure you understood.”

“That I became a Night Diver.”

The name was the same as the game I played in my previous life.

Could that be a coincidence?

As I wondered what was going on, Hammer nodded.

“Yeah, well, as long as you understand that. Anyway, members like us who come from the Blessed dive into that dark Land of Night, kill monsters, and gather Ether.”

“Ether?”

I knew Ether.

It was the currency I'd enthusiastically farmed in Night Diver.

Ten million Ether for five thousand won!

“Ether comes from killing monsters?”

“That's right. You need to gather a lot. The more you gather, the better it is for you too. Your share gets bigger.”

The same name as the game, and even Ether?

Fuck, this didn't seem normal at all.

“The really important thing is the role you'll have in our party. If there are locked chests, you'll pick their locks. If there are traps, you'll disarm them. We call someone who does that a Thief.”

“I've picked the locks on a few chests before, but I've never disarmed traps. Don't you need specialized skills for that?”

I wanted to learn too.

But the thieves never wanted to teach me for free.

They said I had to join some guild or something.

And pay annual fees.

What a bunch of robbers.

“Skills? You don't need to worry about that.”

“Why not?”

Seriously, why?

At my question, Hammer shook their head and took the lead.

“I think it'll be faster to show you than explain. Let's get right into the field!”

Author's Note